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Feb 24, 2014

Michael Rothschild and I headed down to Florida to dive the world famous Blue Heron Bridge.

Pete and Mike after a dive

Here's Mike's account:

Regular readers of this column (hi, mom!) know that I loves me some local, cold water diving. But I have to admit that the warm, clear waters of the southern latitudes and their healthy tropical sea creature populations do have a certain appeal. Especially when the polar vortex is kicking our collective ass at home in NYC. So my buddy Pete and I decided to head south for a quick trip to warmer seas for a dive that I have always wanted to do - the Blue Heron Bridge.Read on>

Feb 17, 2014

I'm in Hamburg for 3 weeks visiting my wife who is rehearsing a big new play at the SchauspielHausTime to gather my thoughts and look back…. and forward.
Between shoots, the discovery of a new stock footage site kept me busy last Month, uploading the first batch of footage from a Mexico shoot.
(If you are a cameraman, you should join: https://app.nimia.com?referrer=pete )

Capturing stock footage can be tough. It has to be a certain length, steady, well lit, perfectly focused etc. Sometimes you just bung it up there anyway and hope it's approved.
The aim is to create an income stream that doesn't need your constant attention.
The problem is that technology advances make your footage go out of date in a matter of a few years as resolutions creep up.
Have a look at the stuff captured by my new camera: https://app.nimia.com/profile/pete/videos/p/1

GoPro sent me a Hero 3+ camera and some accessories to test out. I've been experimenting with it all in preparation for a course I'm going to be teaching in New York City this season.
Here's the first outing with the camera stuck on my big rig, followed by the second experiment using it as an extra angle camera

As you will see in the second video, I have put the GoPro mounts to work, and tried to be creative in devising new places to place the GoPro.

I'm currently working on an edit for Aldora Divers, a dive operation in Cozumel who have recently explored some areas outside the comfort zone of the island's dive industry. So exciting stuff. It was another challenging shoot. Lately, the shoots I've been sent on have had more specific purpose than usual. The pressure of getting particular shots for a desired end result can really put an underwater cameraman's skills to the test. No time to fart around with settings or make mistakes. You have to have your shit together.

More extreme was the Cenote shoot in Mexico a couple of weeks ago. The video director needed extremely steady shots as the screen will be enormous, and any little movements would make the audience seasick. Even more challenging was the fact that the models were freedivers, so each shot would last for a minute or less. No time to mess around, and the water was cold, so the brave freediver in the wedding dress had limited time in the water.

More films to come. The Deepest Man is a theatre production, so I am off the hook for the editing, but there is a nice bunch of footage on my hard drive of John Chatterton spearfishing in Florida during a wreck trek.